One of the greatest box office successes in France of all time, La Piscine, re-released from Rialto Pictures this summer, features lovers Marianne and Jean-Paul on holiday together at a luxurious villa. Their sensual solitude is interrupted by the impromptu arrival of their mutual friend Harry with his 18-year-old daughter Penelope. Tension between the grown-ups rises especially when Jean-Paul seduces Penelope. The consequences are deadly.
Starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, and Jane Birkin, La Piscine has been playing by popular demand for over 12 weeks and counting at New York’s Film Forum.
“ICILY EROTIC! Seething passion and emotional chaos lie beneath the symbolically placid surface of the villa’s swimming pool, which becomes the site for both seduction and violent revenge.” — Dave Kehr, New York Times
“Erotic languor turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled thriller… The pool is a primordial swamp of desire, a space in which there is nothing to do but laze around, furtively looking at semi-naked bodies.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Gaurdian
directed by
Jacques Deray
Jacques Deray
written by
Jean-Claude Carrière, Jacques Deray, Alain Page
Jean-Claude Carrière, Jacques Deray, Alain Page
with
Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet
Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet
language
French, English
French, English
country
France, Italy
France, Italy
production company
Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC), Tritone Cinematografica
Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC), Tritone Cinematografica